March Military Campaign – Panhard EBR

Yesterday’s TV1000 Rhino, while cool, just wasn’t, ohIdunno, French enough. Fortunately, TA came through with a link to Panhard’s website, where the company showcases a few of its past military vehicles, such as the eight-wheeled EBR.

About 1,200 EBRs were built, and they saw action in the Algerian War (1954-1962) and the Portugese Colonial War (1961-1974). I’ve yet to find out how long they remained in service, though it seems most of those remaining – if not all – are currently retired and in museums.

What made the EBR unique mechanically – more so than the 200hp flat-12 engine mounted midships – was its drive system. While the engine was laid out longitudinally, the transmission was transverse and sprouted four driveshafts: one to each of the two “front” wheels, then one back along either side of the vehicle that turned individual ring gears for each of the four center wheels, then, through universal joints, turned each of the “rear” wheels. I put “front” and “rear” in quotations because the EBR could be steered from either end. Thus, a crew consisted of one front driver, one rear driver, one gunner and one vehicle commander.

The whole thing weighed in at 12.7 (13) tons and had a maximum speed of 100 KPH (62 MPH).